walnut crotch figure

Dave Kauffman

Member
Messages
180
Location
Fort Washington, PA
Just got back from milling a 26" walnut log that had blown down in yard. Got about 200 bd ft the first trip, and tonight about 175 more. But once in a while you get lucky, and this thing had a promising looking crotch section. My experience in the past has been that they are a crap shoot... sometimes you get some nice solid stuff, sometimes there is bark inclusions and the figure only stretches for maybe a foot or more even though it looks like it should be longer from the outside. When I opened up this crotch section I couldn't believe how pretty it was... about as good as it gets. The figure goes for over 36 inches and is about 9 inches wide and somewhat uniform in width. I milled it 5/4, and of the 8 13" wide boards I got from it I'd say 5 of them are as pretty like this one pic below. I just ran this one board through the planer to clean up the bandsaw mill marks and see how pretty it was. Imagine when this has been dried, S4S and a coat of oil brings out the figure. Only problem is special boards like these I tend to not use because I'm waiting for that "special" project somewhere in the future that can really show something like this off.

walnut.jpg
 
Dave,

That is some beautiful figure. What a great find. I could see a nice chest of drawers with the figured wood on the drawers. I like using figured wood when I make some hand-cut dovetailed boxes for presents. Look forward to seeing what you decide to make out of this.

Regards,
 
Gorgeous stuff, Dave. From the dimensions you describe, that tree section sounds like it would have made some nice turning wood, too.
 
I was thinking grandfather clock... but first I have to take some serious extra special care in how I dry it. I've dried walnut crotch before with no problem, you just have to take care to dry it very slowly, but not so slow it starts to mold on the surface. With boards like this I don't mind taking the extra fuss and time.
 
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